Bryan Gonzalez Lawsuit

Bryan Gonzalez Lawsuit, Border Patrol Agent Bryan Gonzalez was fired merely for verbally expressing frustration with the war on marijuana and voicing support for LEAP, Maybe Frank Zappa was right to ask, “Who are the Brain Police?” Remarks from a Border Patrol agent expressing dissatisfaction with the Drug War — made on the job to a fellow agent, a few feet from the Mexican border — later resulted in the agent’s firing after his remarks were passed along to headquarters.

Bryan Gonzalez, a young agent stationed in Deming, New Mexico, was in his Border Patrol vehicle next to the border when he pulled up to a fellow agent to chat about the frustrations of the job, reports Marc Lacey at The New York Times.

If marijuana were legalized, Gonzalez told the other agent, the drug-related violence across the border in Mexico would cease. He then mentioned an organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), consisting of former cops, judges and prosecutors who favor ending the War On Drugs.

“Now that The New York Times has featured LEAP and the emerging debate in the law enforcement community about ending the ‘war on drugs,’ hopefully this will lead to more sympathetic cops getting in touch with us and joining the movement,” LEAP’s media relations director, Tom Angell, told Toke of the Town on Monday morning.

“I’m already hearing from a lot of news outlets that don’t normally cover LEAP that the Times story caught their attention,” Angell said.

Those remarks — along with a few others expressing sympathy for illegal immigrants from Mexico — were reported to Border Patrol headquarters in Washington, D.C. After an investigation letter, Gonzalez was fired. A termination letter said that he held “personal views that were contrary to core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps.”

Gonzalez became one of a growing number of law enforcement officials who have lost their jobs for questioning the War On Drugs — and some of them are now fighting back in the courts.